Chapter 1: Domino City

Seven Years Ago

"Where is he?"

"Autumn..."

"Where's all his stuff? Nothing's in his room."

"Honey, please listen. He had to leave for a little while."

"Had to leave? Did someone take him? I saw a couple grown ups here earlier. Did he get chosen? Did he just leave without saying anything?"

"Autumn-"

"I thought we were friends. Why would he do this?"

"...He had to be rushed to the hospital."

"H-Hospital? What happened? Is he hurt or something?"

"Yes. We're not sure how long he's going to be there, but we do know it's going to be for a long time."

"What happened? What's wrong with him?"

"I-I can't tell you, sweetheart. I was told not to say anything to anyone about this."

"But-"

"I can't say anymore, sweetie. All I can say is..he probably won't be back."

"N-No...no...not him...why…?"

Autumn felt her body jolt as she opened her eyes. After a few seconds, she realized she was still in the back seat of her uncle's van. No longer was she at the orphanage where she spent a good portion of her childhood.

'It was just a dream,' she thought to herself.

Rubbing her forehead, she brought her hands down to the bridge of her nose. It felt wet in the inner corners of her eyes. She wiped at her cheeks, only to notice they were wet, too. Great, she had started crying again. She looked back at Ashy, her brother. He was sprawled across the third row of the van, fast asleep. On the floor in front of him lay their two husky/wolf-mix dogs, Timber and Tundra. At least he hadn't seen her. She didn't want any attention brought to-

"Autumn, are you alright?"

Looking at the front passenger's seat, Autumn saw Amethyst staring back at her. Oh boy. Just what she didn't want. Her aunt tended to get super concerned about her, and would often bother her to the point that Autumn would just tell her what was wrong. And she hated doing that. Not that there was anything wrong with talking to her family about stuff, but every once in awhile, she wished they would just leave her be.

"Yeah," she said, sniffling a little, "I think it's allergies."

She smiled a little, hoping Amethyst would just believe her, turn back around and keep quiet. Amethyst laughed a little and raised an eyebrow

"I was unaware you had allergies."

"It sometimes happens," was all she said.

Amethyst stared at her niece for a few more seconds before simply shaking her head and turning her attention back to the road. Autumn sighed quietly and looked out her own window. Rain splattered against the van, coming down in sheets. Off in the distance, she could see the silhouette of a massive city. Domino City. Her uncle Ivory had gotten a job offer there only a month before. Living five hours away wasn't going to cut it, so naturally, they had to move. Autumn didn't complain much about it. What was there to be upset about? Her family would be getting a ton more money, and it wasn't like she had any friends back where they lived.

It wasn't that she hated people; she was shy. Really shy. It had been hard for her once she had been enrolled in a public school. By the time she had gotten enough courage to try to talk to anyone, they had all assumed she was just a huge weirdo and she became an outcast. Well, good riddance to all of them now.

Ashy once told her that some of the kids in his grade had said no one liked her cause she looked weird. Looked weird? What the hell was that supposed to mean? Standing at five foot even, she was pretty short, but she knew there were girls smaller than her. She wasn't underweight, or really skinny, but it's not like she was overweight either. Most of it went to her boobs. Because of this, she would constantly wear sweatshirts to cover herself up. She hated how every guy would comment on them, but not say anything nice to her. Or anything at all, for that matter. Her eyes were a light brown, and she had sported the same hairstyle for years; long, curly and red that was flipped to the left side. She was really pale and freckles spotted every inch of her. That was thanks to her mother, who had been a hundred percent Scottish.

"Ashy."

Autumn looked towards her uncle, who had been quiet for most of the drive.

"Ashy," he said again, louder.

Ashy raised his head up.

"Huh? What's up?" he asked, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

"We're almost there. Get your seat belt on. There's gonna be cops all over the city."

With a small grumble, he sat up and buckled himself in. Timber perked his head up and stuck his tongue out, his tail going wild.

"In a few minutes," Ashy said, patting his head.

Ashy was right. Within ten minutes, they had passed the city limits. The main streets were lined with cars bumper to bumper, and the sidewalks were filled with people walking briskly. Some had umbrellas, while others covered themselves with newspapers that were already soaked through. A few of them, who had nothing at all, fast walked, pushing through the crowds. Autumn looked at her phone; 5:15 p.m. Most likely, a good amount them were on their way home from work.

"Uncle Ivory," Autumn said.

"What's up?" he asked.

"Where are you gonna be working?"

"We'll pass it in a bit. I'll show you."

"Alright."

Her uncle was an electrician for DCE. Domino City Electric was one of Japan's largest electrical companies, with over 25,000 employees. About two months before, their chief business development officer had announced he was retiring, and they needed to find a replacement asap. Around fifty employees, who were thought to be good enough, were interviewed for the position. Wouldn't luck have it, Ivory was chosen, which meant he would be right up there with CEO. Within less than a month of his promotion, they had found an apartment.

"What's that building?" Ashy asked suddenly.

Autumn looked to her right to see a massive skyscraper. Automatically, she knew what it was. She didn't need to look at the name, despite it being plastered across the top of the doors. The two giant Blue Eyes White Dragon statues on each side pretty much gave it away. Despite the rain, there was a large amount of people out in front.

"That's Kaiba Corp," she answered, "You know, the company that made the Duel Disk for Duel Monsters."

"Oh, that's KC?" Ashy said, questionably, "I was thinking it would look...I don't know...different."

"Apparently, the business used to deal with military weaponry. Then it was transferred to someone in the family, and they changed it to Duel Monsters technology."

"How do you suddenly change a business from being military oriented to card games?" Amethyst asked.

"I'm not sure," Autumn said, watching the building disappear in the distance, "Like I said, it was passed on to someone else in the family. That's all I know"

"Well, now you know it'll be right down the street from my work," Ivory said, pointing to another building.

It wasn't as tall as Kaiba Corp, but it certainly was a wider, more square shape. It was made almost completely of tan stone, with a few windows here and there. In large letters were DCE across the roof.

"Looks like a new building," Ashy said.

"They remodeled it about six months ago," Ivory said.

Before Autumn could comment anything on her uncle's work, her eyes focused on a group of people standing at the crosswalk in front of them. They were four teenage girls. More importantly, they were wearing the Domino High School girl's uniform: a white undershirt, pink jacket, blue tie, pleated blue skirt, and white socks with black shoes. Autumn felt her stomach churn a little. In a couple days, she would be going to school with them, along with about 1000 other students. That was almost double what was at her old school. Double the amount of students to ignore her and act like she didn't exist. Perfect. Just perfect.

I hope you guys enjoyed the first chapter of Blue Heart :) It is my first story, so I'm sorry it's not perfect, but I hope to get better. Thank you :)